This invention relates to a guide for female BNC connector part.
The conventional BNC connector is composed of a female part or receptacle and a male part or plug. The female part includes a cylindrical barrel with two diametrically opposed pins projecting radially therefrom. The male BNC connector part may be of either the lock-on type or the push-on type. The lock-on type of male BNC connector part includes a pin which is fitted in the barrel of the female connector part and a shell which is fitted over the barrel and is formed with two diametrically opposed J-shaped slots which receive the pins of the female connector part. To engage the lock-on type of male BNC connector part, the two parts are brought together by linear, non-rotational movement so that the pins slide in the J-shaped slots respectively until the pins bottom in the slots. The two parts then undergo relative rotational movement through a small angle and the pins become captive in the slots. The push-on type of male BNC connector part does not include the shell and is fully engaged with the female part by linear, non-rotational relative movement.
BNC connectors having a male part of the push-on type are widely used in bulkhead applications, in which one part of the connector is mounted in a rear frame bulkhead of a piece of electronic equipment and the other part of the connector is mounted in a rear wall of a plug-in module to be fitted in the frame. The connector is automatically engaged when the plug-in module is installed in the frame. This type of application is inconvenient because the person installing the plug-in module in the frame cannot usually see the connector parts and therefore it can be difficult to position the plug-in module properly for engagement of the connector. A solution to this problem is to use a connector in which the female connector part has a flared barrel which guides engagement of the male connector part when the plug-in module is installed in the frame. However, the female connector part having a flared barrel is much more expensive than the female connector part having a cylindrical barrel.
BNC connectors having a male part of the push-on type can also be used in an edge-mount application, in which one part of the connector is installed in the rear wall of a mounting frame and the other part is attached to an edge of a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board is fitted in guides built into the mounting frame and is inserted into the frame. As the board approaches the fully inserted position, the two parts of the BNC connector engage. In this application, the connector parts may not be completely hidden from view when the board is being inserted into the frame, but it can nevertheless be awkward to align the circuit board properly in the guides so that the connector will engage.